Every once in a while I file a support issue with some service I use. The customer service rep confidently replies with an answer. The last one, at a place I won’t name, suggested that I clear my browser cache. Of course, I had done that, multiple times on multiple browsers. That’s fine though. That […]

I’m listening to a writer for Law and Order, who used to be a crime reporter. He was saying that if you ask any homicide detective, they’ll all tell you that often the killer says “Well he told me to shoot.”

We are motivated to do good, even great, things for friendship (social norms) and we expect to pay for commercial goods (market norms), but when we mix these, bad things happen in our social lives and for companies that get this wrong.

If you have to make a snap decision to save your life, that’s one thing, but the hoopla around Malcom Gladwell’s book Blink got me thinking of the times when I’ve been told that you can’t always trust logic. Well, never trust someone who tells you that.

It seems that every corporate website has some place to handle problems and complaints. But shouldn’t you have a place to handle happy customers? The unhappy customer may be unrecoverable, but you want a long-term relationship with happy customers.